Welcome to another installment of Today's Release Highlights, where the TND writers room gathers up some brand new projects they want to draw your eyes and ears to.

Today, we have a whopping 14 (!!!) new releases we'd like to key you into as you head into the weekend. Check them all out below.

Ba bam!

Boards of Canada – Inferno [Warp]

Taking thirteen years between albums might be all the rage these days (see: Tool, Porcupine Tree), but it’s still a shock to the system when an act's first LP after a baker’s dozen of annual calendar flips arrives. Enter Inferno. Scottish duo Boards of Canada tweak and chop nostalgia-infused vocal samples over carefully-manicured soundscapes. Inferno was preceded by a liberal helping of mystique; VHS tapes were mailed out to fans leading up to the release. A similar video, uploaded by Boards of Canada to YouTube as "Tape 05," contains audio which appears as the track "Deep Time" (below). Driving rhythms, apt for a Warp Records release, punctuate the kind of dreaminess that Boards excel in. Tranquil, lying-on-a-beach dreaminess? Nope – you'll be hearing the kind of haze your mind drifts into when you've been without sleep for a day straight, and you're not sure if you're awake or unconscious. – Tyler Roland

Deafkids – CICATRIZES DO FUTURO [Neurot Recordings]

How's the future looking? According to Brazilian punk duo Deafkids, it's heavy, glitched and grim. On their first solo album since 2019's Metaprogramação (if you haven't already, do check out their collaborative LP with Test, Sem Esperanças, from last year), Deafkids sound like they're writing more than songs. The nine tracks in Cicatrizes do Futuro might as well be rituals, visions, spells. The sludgy guitars and hypnotic percussion are the main ingredients, but there are also glimpses of vocals and electronic effects that drift in and out of the mix. All of it's building towards a sight of a future that's haunted by its past. – Amanda Cavalcanti

ear - Rumspringa [self-released]

'Rumspringa" refers to the Pennsylvania Dutch term for adolescence. While it's seen in pop culture as a time for Amish youngsters to rebel against their secluded upbringing, most of them end up returning back to the community. Such is the case with ear's Rumspringa; it's a shift away from the faster beats that first got them played in many a college radio station and backyard party and towards a quieter, contemplative mood. Sure, for those who miss old ear, leading single "Ne Pas Ultra" is there. However, the rest of the record takes a step back and lets the listener fill in the gaps left from the toned-down instrumentals and interpret them as something else. For bandmembers Yaelle Avtan and Jonah Paz, it's a welcome relief from the scene that got them into the spotlight. For the rest of us, it's a chance to become a little more cultured. – Dana Badii

Feeble Little Horse – bitknot [Saddle Creek]

Incredible that a release like bitknot could be called anyone's most conventional record, but Pittsburgh's Feeble Little Horse have never made a predictable album. Hell, they've never made a predictable song, as last year's whiplash-filled one-off "This Is Real" made clear. Sonically, this is as polished as they get though, left turns and odd sonic detours included, which means the g-funk synth midway through "Dior" and the fuzzbombs of "Doorway" just as much as the sweet music-box-esque riff of "Rewind" or the warped waltz "Paris." They still mine shoegaze for cool sounds rather than a plodding rhythmic philosophy (and occasional gorgeousness like "Cradle") and Lydia Slocum still sings non-sequiturs like "I think I dodged a bullet not going to Wednesday's show," about their Asheville friends. It's just all sharper and tighter now. And then you have "Upside Down" which sounds like Bladee. (Check out our interview with them from earlier this week!) – Daniel Aaron

Iceage – For Love of Grace & The Hereafter [Mexican Summer]

Making their return to music as a group since 2021’s Seek Shelter, the Danish alt rock group Iceage are back with a free-spirited, fun, and raucous return to form on For Love of Grace & The Hereafter. Their first single “Star” already cued listeners into the buoyancy of their new style: its simple and straightforward lyrics — a romantic love blooms like a soft beam of light, yet it’s also fiery and destructive like a violent explosion — blossoms even more with jangle rock guitars, crashing drums, and vocals that whine and yelp compulsively. The energy continued in “Ember” and “The Weak,” jittering, catchy tracks that heighten the intensity of vivid lyricism with bells, whistles, xylophones, and anthemic choruses. Other tracks the band revealed today are simply good fun. "mother-of-pearl" starts with a White Stripes-like garage rock guitar and drum duet, and while "Holy Water" is the shortest track on the album, falling under three minutes, its steely bass complemented by Rønnenfelt's slightly reined-in vocal deliveries and steady chittering drum beat is ready for a big crowd dancing moment.

Delivering on their goal to appear spur-of-the-moment and quick footed, blasting through each track with unceasing momentum, Iceage reignite the childlike wonder of their earliest days, channeling that high in euphoric, rock ’n’ roll tugs, jerks, and flows. – Victoria Borlando

KÁRYYN – Physics Universal Love Language (PULL) [Mute]

For all its scientific language and avant electronic sound design, this long-in-the-works second album from LA-based artist KÁRYYN is perhaps most committed to sensation. Beneath the nods to neuroscience, quantum physics, and other conceptual hooks lies a ten-song study of what it means to welcome in collapse and work your way back from undoing. After all, what’s the point of a concept album if not to articulate feelings too big or contradictory to express more conventionally? On PULL, bodies and selves behave like cosmic events, drawn together by invisible forces, or fragmented under pressure and rebuilt into coherence. “I went hunting for dark matter,” she says by way of explanation, “and instead I found brilliance, light, and potential.”

Working mainly with producers James Ford and Hudson Mohawke, KÁRYYN makes liberal use of modular synths and granular processing, creating textures that dissolve, reform, and mutate in real time, at once both organic and alien-sounding. Special shoutout to Raven Bush’s cinematic strings, which draw on KÁRYYN’s Syrian-Armenian roots, and the frequency of 432Hz, to which many of the songs are tuned – a counterpoint of calm to the drama within. – Alan Pedder

Manchester Orchestra - Union Chapel (London, England) [Loma Vista Records]

During the rollout for Union Chapel (London, England), a live album documenting the Manchester Orchestra’s three-night residency at London’s historic Union Chapel in the fall of 2023, tragedy struck. The band’s drummer Tim Very suddenly passed away on February 14th at the age of 42. In the wake of his death, the project was quietly brought to a halt as the band stepped away to grieve privately. Months later, frontman Andy Hull shared a letter on the band’s website, addressing fans with gratitude for their love and patience, while also offering updates on Union Chapel and the band’s ongoing seventh studio album. In Hull’s own words about Union Chapel:

"As many of you also know, we were fully in the throes of releasing our live in London Union Chapel album. Obviously, it didn't feel correct in any way to continue pushing or promoting that forward at the time. In fact, the more I thought about it, I realized there is never going to be a good time. So I figured the best way to release it is just to give it to you here. A thank you for all of your kind words and love that you've given us and for the support that we are so deeply grateful for. I ask that you bear with us as we figure out how to finish and honor our friend with his final piece of work."

What emerges here is a stripped-back acoustic type performance that lets the intricacy of the guitar work breathe and puts Hull’s vocal range fully on display. At the time of recording, it was an intimate live set, but in light of Tim Very’s passing, it now feels like being invited into the band’s home to grieve alongside them. Every song carries a quiet emotional weight, delicate yet devastating in places, powerful and absorbing throughout. It’s a beautiful document, and a deeply moving way to honor what now stands as Tim Very’s final recorded contribution. – Ricky Adams

Monolord – Neverending [Relapse]

Doom metal is not the genre you first think of when you're looking for accessible music. Swedish doom-meisters Monolord, though, are bringing what you could call their most immediate material yet to the table with Neverending. Rest assured, their dense riffs and osmium-level heaviness are still very much present. Working with Sylvia Massey (she of Tool and System of a Down production), Monolord present tunes like "Iodine," the group's take on '70s rock, and lead single "You Bastard," which hits hard and gets out in just 4:19 while still acting as a meaty, drop A representation of the trio. – Tyler Roland

Paulete Lindacelva – Filha de Abya Yala, Herdeira de Kemet [Perfecto Estado]

Paulete Lindacelva is one of the most exciting DJs to emerge from Brazilian dancefloors in the last couple of years. Her work is just as conceptual as it is danceable: in her last EP, Guabiraba, Chicago, she drew connections between her hometown of Recife, where she started DJing and producing, and the birthplace of her beloved house music. Filha de Abya Yala, Herdeira de Kemet expands that interest in territory into something even more ambitious. Drawing from not only house, but also reggae, cumbia and many other genres, she references ancient Latin American peoples and traces their presence in our contemporary lives. As she puts it herself: “It’s a great EP to dance to and enjoy, but it’s also a call to remember, honor, and carry on.” – Amanda Cavalcanti

Penelope Trappes – Opvs Novum: A Requiem Reworked [One Little Independent]

Death may be “inevitable” and “omnipresent,” but, as Penelope Trappes put it last year when talking about her funereal fifth album A Requiem, “nightmares can be beautiful,” and this newly reimagined collection picks up exactly at that knotty intersection. What began as an intensely personal confrontation with trauma and death is transformed on Opvs Novum into something more communal and often strangely comforting.

“I wanted [it] to feel like an original album with an aura all of its own,” says the Australia-born, UK-based artist, and it really does feel that way: less like a retread than a gathering of mourners with their own sonic rituals through which they reshape each of A Requiem’s ten songs, preserving their sequence while widening their scope. The result is a record that shines new candlelight on the ceremonial beauty of Trappes’ work, thanks to some stellar reinventions by Julia Holter (“Thou Art Mortal”), Gazelle Twin (“Sleep”), Midwife (“A Requiem”), Saint Etienne (“Platinum”), and other friends and supporters. “I am infinitely humbled by their transcendental creations,” she says. “As we all comprehend our own collective grief in a world that would rather keep us separated and fearful, I hope this can be a small testament to what it means to reimagine a collective hymnal spirit.” – Alan Pedder

Sook-Yin Lee – 72RHR [Hand Drawn Dracula]

Imagine an infrared scan of your hand, waving around. While it's capturing the heat of your body, it's still a little trippy, especially as the colors fade into each other like viscous blobs of goo. That's how listening to multimedia artist Sook-Yin Lee's 72RHR feels in a way. Conceptually, the album is grounded in the heart's average resting tempo, constricting each track to the same 72 BPM rule. From there, it challenges meditation, building tension in the calming rhythm through uneasy synth effects, vocal manipulation, and dynamic industrial production that lights up the brain. Trance-like and downbeat, the music contrasts her tranquil vocals — often enveloped in cloudy autotune effects or faint whispers — with buzzsaws, clunky and fried percussion, and haunting synth loops. "Green Tara," for example, gets fully into alien territory; bubbling above the throbbing pulses are flute-like flourishes that twitter like birds, rendered strange by the artist's auto-tuned sighs, manta repetitions, and nonsensical mutterings. It's hard to believe a later song like "Locked Boy" marches to the same pace, as it excites with the artist's clearest vocal performance, embellished with manufactured harmonies that sound like a heavenly choir behind her. 72RHR is earthy yet digital; human and hot-blooded yet distant and something Other. Delightfully strange, Sook-Yin Lee leaves only a little room for rest in her latest album. – Victoria Borlando

Static Dress – Injury Episode [Sumerian Records]

In 2003, pre-“I’m Not Okay” breakout fame, there was a very real possibility that My Chemical Romance could have gone in a completely different direction with their sophomore album. Screamo was exploding at the time with bands like Underoath, Silverstein, and From Autumn to Ashes dominating the scene, and although MCR flirted with that sound, they never fully plunged into it. If they had, I imagine it would’ve sounded a lot like Static Dress’s new sophomore album Injury Episode. Seriously, listen to “lip critic” or “human props” and tell me you don’t hear echoes of the 3:26 mark of "I Never Told You What I Do for a Living" by MCR. My DMs are open if you disagree. It’s got the chaotic peak-2006 emo/screamo feels, but with massive 2026 production behind it.

This thing booms. It has that polished arena-screamo sound without sanding off the emotional panic attack at its core. Those beautiful vocals that shift from soaring harmonies into literal guttural cries. There’s even an appearance from the aforementioned Underoath, so if you’re a fan of them, or Bring Me the Horizon, or really any of those massive emo/screamo and post-hardcore bands from that era, this album is absolutely for you. – Ricky Adams

Various Artists – Where The Willow And The Dogwood Grow [Ace]

Tom Waits and his wife/collaborator Kathleen Brennan have so many songs under their belt — Waits’ discography stretches back to the 70s, after all, and includes 17 studio records — that any covers album of their work feels like a gargantuan task, ripe to fill disc upon disc of interpretations. But here we have Where The Willow And The Dogwood Grow, a 19-song project from Ace Records, and it includes a nice array of tunes from across those albums, as well as a diverse set of artists. Kicking off with a 1981 live version of “Jersey Girl” from Bruce Springsteen (which, curiously, was actually only written by Waits, but is about Brennan), the set traipses through the Waits/Brennan canon in chronological order. And though all the songs have existed previously (nothing new was recorded for this set), it's still a cool little document of the reach and vitality of the pair's songwriting over the years.

From that starting point we wind through a few of the “bigger” entries, like Bob Seger and The Silver Bullet Band’s take on “16 Shells From A Thirty-Ought-Six,” or Los Lobos’ “Jockey Full of Bourbon,” or Madison Cunningham’s “Hold On.” But overall, this covers record dives deeper, picking out some deeper cuts, such as “Way Down in the Hole” from The Blind Boys of Alabama, and “House Where Nobody Lives” from King Ernst, or “Trampled Rose” by Allison Kraus and Robert Plant. It even includes one from the late great Marianne Faithfull, singing “Strange Weather” from 1988’s live album Big Time, and closes with Joan Baez singing his woeful anti-war tune “Day After Tomorrow” from 2004’s Real Gone. Where The Willow And The Dogwood Grow is a well-rounded, star-studded ardent assemblage of covers (it also features Norah Jones, Willie Nelson, Ramones, and more), and it’s a nice treat for fans of Waits, Brennan, or any of the artists who contributed. — Jeremy J. Fisette

Victor Xamã & Willsbife – Estreito [El Prat]

On this collaborative LP, rapper Victor Xamã and beatmaker Willsbife reconnect with their roots. For Victor, that is his hometown of Manaus, Northern Brazil; for Will, it's his Korean heritage. United in São Paulo, the two crafted a collection of laid-back beats and thoughtful rhymes that also brings together the Brazilian rap undeground: features from Zudizilla, Janvi, Akira Presidente and many more add to the close-knit, familiar feel of this mixtape. If you miss "when hip-hop was rapping", as said by Kendrick Lamar, this is well worth your time. – Amanda Cavalcanti